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Improvement in Diffusion Length Estimation using the Photocurrent-Capacitance Method in CuInSe2-based Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2011

Clifford H. Champness
Clifford H. Champness*
Affiliation:
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, McGill University, 3480 University Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 2A7
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Abstract

The experimental technique in the photocurrent-capacitance method of estimating minority diffusion lengths, as applied to CuInSe2-based photovoltaic cells, has been improved, principally by replacing the earlier chopped light and monochromator technique by one employing a steady strong stable light source and a long pass optical filter. The filter requires an absorption edge at an appropriate wavelength to provide the penetrating light at sufficient intensity, which has been found to be 1.1 μm for CuInSe2 cells and 1.0 μ for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 cells. In addition, the parallel capacitance is determined with reverse bias under the same illumination as that during the photocurrent measurements and at a suitable frequency, such as 10 kHz. With these changes, the technique has been found to be more tolerant to cell imperfections and reproducible estimates of diffusion length have been obtained on CuInSe2 and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 cells.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 668: Symposium H – II-IV Compound Semiconductor Photovoltaic Materials , 2001 , H9.6
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2001

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References

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